Christian

Over the Christmas holiday I read a book about the partition of India, Freedom at Midnight, by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre. Of the four main players in the final act, three were strongly opposed to partition. They all feared the bloodbath that could follow dividing India into two countries. One of these, of course, was Gandhi. When the boundaries of India and Pakistan were revealed, the result, as predicted, was technically feasible – practically a disaster. Everyone expected the worst of the bloodshed would be in Calcutta. Gandhi, therefore, went to Calcutta, to persuade the city’s Hindus to become protectors of the city’s Moslems. The miracle of Calcutta’s peace, whilst the Punjab tore itself apart, lasted till the end of August. When two Muslim day labourers were murdered by Hindus, the 78-year-old Gandhi began a fast until death. Within 72 hours, peace was restored to Calcutta. Hindu, Sikh and Moslem leaders of the city solemnly promised Gandhi, ‘We shall never allow communal strife in the city again and shall strive until death to prevent it’.

Sam preached a sermon in October, What does it mean to be a Christian?, in which he quoted Michael Curry, then presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. ‘If it doesn’t look like Jesus, if it doesn’t love like Jesus, if it doesn’t care about others like Jesus…it may well not be Christian.’ If, as Sam argues, ‘Christian’ should be defined not by cultural heritage or personal identity but by the concrete action it yields, then I would say Gandhi’s actions were Christian.

My prayer for 2026 is that leaders in the world today who, whatever religion they follow, by culture or personal identity live that sense of Christianity.

Wendy Quill